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The specific foods we eat greatly affect our health and well-being. Nutritious food choices—like whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables—promote health and fitness. Other food choices, however, are detrimental to health. Diet is directly linked to a number of diseases—including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

With recent technological and medical advances, each of us has more tools for staying healthy than ever before. Paradoxically, diet-related diseases are on the rise. Obesity and diabetes have reached epidemic levels in our country.

Public policy, marketing, and other factors influence food and health decisions at both the personal and the societal level. For example, the U.S. policy of subsidizing certain crops artificially lowers the prices of these crops. Corn and soybeans are so cheap that food producers use them in countless ways—from high-fructose corn syrup to animal feed. As a result, the least-cost grocery items are often made of refined grains with added sweeteners and fats, and contain one or more subsidized ingredient.

Healthful food choices are often more expensive than less healthful ones. From 1985 to 2000, for example, soft drinks—which contain high fructose corn syrup—dropped in price 23 percent, while fruits and vegetables rose almost 40 percent (USDA). Many low-income families simply cannot afford the healthier foods. That is partly why income is the most accurate predictor of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, which are both related to diet (Drewnowski). It's one reason why school food is so important, especially for children from low-income families.

A sustainable society must also be healthy for humans. By looking to nature as teacher, we can see that nature-based solutions to modern-day problems are usually also the healthiest and most sustainable. In terms of food and nutrition, that means moving toward a system that promotes "whole" foods over highly processed ones and that removes pesticide residues and additives such as preservatives and artificial coloring from foods.

References cited in this article may be found in "References" in the Resources page of our website.